Personal Statement
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/olivia-wall
Having consistently participated in competitive sports, whether it’s been National Level Diving, County Level Gymnastics, local team netball or representing my school in football, dancing, athletics, rounders or swimming, it feels right to choose sport as a career path.
I am a National Level Diver, placing in the top 10 in the country at the 2023 Junior British Elite Championships on both 1m and 3m. The year before, just days after completing my final GCSE, I became National Age Group Champion on 1m and 3m. This taught me patience and resilience as not everything went to plan trying to revise for my GCSEs whilst training for a big competition. I also learnt how to manage my time so I could complete all my revision and find time to dive. My motivation to succeed in both my academic studies and the sport I love ensured I continued to do both to the best of my ability during a very difficult and busy period.
As sport has been, and still is, my passion, studying sport will allow me to gain a better understanding of the industry, the laws associated with it and insight into how the sporting world can be developed.
My involvement in diving and football has peaked my interest to learn as much as possible about specific areas in sport, like how clubs are run and how sport is protected. I believe that this will allow me to pass on knowledge, create opportunities for others, and to better the sporting environment. I have a particular interest in Sports Law and a recent visit to the Old Bailey demonstrated to me the depth it goes into. I have been able to see how competing at a National Level and studying the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) links with the wider sporting world and it’s laws preparing me for a long career in the industry.
Studying A Level Business has helped me to understand that sports clubs are run just like businesses and how sportspeople themselves need external factors to get to the level they want to be, whether this be media coverage or sponsorship deals.
Studying A Level Psychology has allowed me to get a better understanding of why athletes behave in a certain way and the type of motives that make behaviour more likely.
To gain a better understanding of the business and psychology within sport, and to enable me to link these subjects to the content of my A Level PE, I began listening to sports podcasts, particularly on football, which has helped me connect real life sporting events to what we are learning in the classroom. This has really helped me provide a deeper meaning and real life application to the content of my A-Levels and provided me with a more analytical view on the sporting world.
After my GCSEs - having been diving for over 13 years - I completed my Level 1 diving coaching course giving me the opportunity to take responsibility for small groups of divers and helping them to learn new skills. This year I have completed my Level 2. Taking on this responsibility has made me improve my problem solving skills as not everyone is able to get dives straight away so I have to come up with new, creative ideas unique to the diver to help them achieve the skill. I am also a qualified J1 diving judge and I use this by volunteering at competitions.
Studying the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) with Loughborough College has helped me to set goals for school and diving and given me a deeper understanding of my career as a diver. By completing DiSE I have had to make financial plans, career plans and back up plans. This has made me take accountability for my own future whilst giving me new opportunities to grow and develop. Further to this, I have been given the opportunity to become a Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) athlete throughout my time at sixth form. This has helped me to balance studies and diving by focusing on how I can interlink the two and ultimately improve in both aspects of life. Being a DiSE and TASS athlete has allowed me to gain qualifications such as UKAD clean+, kick it out LGBTQ+ awareness course, sport England/ UK coaching sudden cardiac arrest course. I have safeguarding children (level 2) and GDPR UK essentials certificates though my coaching role .I also completed my bronze DofE during COVID. All these opportunities have helped me realise the depth and complexity of the sporting industry and reinforced the idea that a career in sports is the correct path for me.
Work experience with Mansfield Town Football Club has helped me to see how bigger clubs are run and the effect of community projects on the people and local area. It has improved my confidence as I have had to work in an environment that is new to me, including working on the football holiday camps and HAFs schemes. I witnessed how football can bring young children together and the effect the HAFs scheme had on not only the children but the parents as well. At the start the children struggled with behaviour so I had to learn to juggle their challenging behaviour, working with people I didn’t know and challenging parents very quickly. Along with this community experience I helped with match day, furthering my understanding and giving a different view of the football club. Following on from this successful and rewarding placement, I have been offered a volunteer role at the club where I help out on as many match days as possible with the mascots match day experience. This has enabled me to make useful links within the football community and helped me to develop skills such as public speaking, organisation and problem solving as every weekend has different situations but must run on time and deliver the same level of experience.
I am greatly looking forward to the future and I am open to trying new things and testing my limits to see what I can do within the sporting industry.
